Stephen David Watson grew up in Africa as a son of former missionaries to Africa. He was educated at the University of Cincinnati and received the Bachelor’s Degree in Pharmacy in 1974. He practiced as a pharmacist during the next years as he went to Northeast Louisiana University earning a Ph.D. in pharmacokinetics in 1979. He attended the School of Medicine at Wright State University graduating in 1983.

Initially intending on becoming a surgeon, he spent two years in a general surgical residency at the Presbyterian-University of Pennsylvania Medical Center in Philadelphia. He left the surgical residency and joined the Air Force becoming the Chief of Aerospace Medicine at Grissom Air Force Base. After finishing his time in the service, he began an anesthesiology residency at Indiana University finishing in 1992. He began the full-time practice of anesthesia that year but also began to develop an increased interest in the practice of pain medicine.

Some almost 17 years later, he has spent 10 years in the full-time practice of interventional pain medicine, developing all of the skills and techniques through the years to be a complete practitioner of the specialty. Along the way, he became certified by the American Board of Pain Medicine, American Board of Interventional Pain Physicians and a Fellow of Intervention Pain Practice. He now is helping pass on the pain medicine specialty by instructing for the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians at their cadaver labs. He became interested in the minimally invasive spine procedures developed by Dr. Larry Rothstein. Over the course of the last two years, he has worked with Dr. Rothstein and now he and Dr. Rothstein are performing the surgical procedures in Dayton, Ohio at the Riverview Health Institute.